Changing the world for better... at least the world of gas stations)

Tag: retail

How IT solutions of my companies help to fight against COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a powerful impact on all areas of public life, including catering and retail. The threat of the spread of the coronavirus and the associated restrictions have made adjustments to consumer behavior and daily habits. Thus, according to the research agency Nielsen, two-thirds of consumers among others have become much more likely to wash their hands and maintain social distance.

It became obvious that the world needs new technologies in the areas of retail, services and catering that will help to systematically fight against COVID-19. Such technologies may be described as “contactless”, “remote” and “antivirus”. They have become top-priority technologies.

All these technologies can be divided into three groups:

  • Technologies aimed at reducing contacts between consumers (clients) and working personnel.
  • Technologies for protecting the surface of goods from viruses.
  • Surface disinfection systems that destroy existing viruses and microbes.

Many of my innovations have already been tested in the past years, but the pandemic has accelerated their adoption to customers and the beginning of commercial operations. By the beginning of 2020, within the perimeter of my businesses, there were a number of successful IT solutions that were already used by companies in 10 countries – large food retailers, oil companies, catering and fast-food companies. For example, the BMS Cloud platform began to be used by the largest companies from the North America to the UAE long before the pandemic, but the pandemic was an important catalyst that showed the particular importance of the technologies that we developed, because they became effective fighters against the spread of COVID-19.

However, there were also technologies that were in the stage of unreadiness of the market for their large-scale application. They were developed by my IT company to a certain high degree of readiness, tested, but were not put into commercial operation. Some of the technological developments were “lying on the shelf” for very obvious reasons – justifying their necessity and benefit would take more resources than the commercial profit from selling them. Therefore, the developments were postponed in stand-by mode and were waiting in the wings.

But at the beginning of 2020, events took place that turned our lives upside down. And oddly enough, some of the technologies put off for the future suddenly became incredibly valuable in terms of the systemic fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

IoT platform for managing coffee businesses “BMS Coffee Control”

The platform, which proved itself long before covid times, helps companies not only reduce the cost of servicing of coffee equipment, but also more than 3 times reduce the number of visits of service engineers to retail facilities. In 2020, the usefulness of the platform in a pandemic was even more evident. As a rule, coffee equipment requires a visit by a service engineer almost every month, service visits occur during business hours or before the opening of let’s say a cafe. At the same time, it is clear that no matter what precautions are taken by the service personnel or the cafe staff, additional contact of people is inevitable. A service mechanic can become a carrier of the virus, because in one working day he travels around several points. It is obvious that the 70% reduction in the number of contacts, which we are achieving at 4 thousand points of sale of customers connected to BMS Coffee Control, makes a significant contribution to the general front of the fight against the pandemic. Remote monitoring of the condition of coffee machines using BMS technology allows you to reduce contacts and prevent the possible spread of COVID-19.

Photo: the interface of the BMS Coffee Control mobile application for monitoring the condition of the equipment.

Creation of networks of automated self-service coffee points

In addition to the mentioned above, the BMS Coffee Control platform allows the development of such a format of catering establishments as automated self-service coffee corners. When you buy coffee yourself, you are not in contact with baristas, waiters and other employees who previously met with a huge number of people and may be virus carriers. You prepare a drink at the touch of a button on the coffee machine or using your smartphone without even a single touch of the coffee machine. Thus, you not only get high-quality coffee in a convenient way without queues and tedious waiting, but also reduce the likelihood of the spread of coronavirus.

Photo: automated coffee point Vortex Coffee

Mobile application “I’m a barista” for remote coffee ordering with control of coffee strength and milk quantity

Another technology that is certainly useful in a difficult epidemiological situation is the “I’m a barista” system. The solution allows customers of self-service coffee points to order and adjust the taste of coffee using their smartphone. Even before the onset of the COVID-19 era, the technology began to be used by more than 1000 convenience stores of Vkusville, Gazpromneft and other companies. The pandemic has opened up additional benefits. Now you can order coffee at a self-service coffee point without touching the coffee machine at all, but using only your own phone. It is enough to point it at the QR code and then all the actions for preparing the drink are performed only on the phone. As a result, you make take-away coffee without unnecessary contacts and touching potentially unsafe surfaces.

Photo: VkusVill, menu of the application “To myself barista”

The UV-treated automated coffee cup dispenser in a weatherproof enclosure 

It is a technology that has been gathering dust on the shelf only because it was a norm to store paper cups for coffee to go in the open space. For catering outlets, it was the norm that cups lay in a stack on a shelf and all visitors could freely touch them. Even those who will not drink coffee. That time the degree of the possible threat was not clear, but COVID-19 changed the situation. The highest demands are now being placed on the safe storage and dispensing of disposable tableware. Our dispenser dispenses cups automatically, one at a time. All cups are stored in a protected case, where germs and viruses can not get, for example, when visitors sneeze. Moreover, each cup is automatically disinfected before being dispensed using built-in ultraviolet lamps of the same type, which disinfect the air in medical institutions.

Photo: coffee solution equipped with an automatic UV dispenser

Technologies of contactless payments for coffee on professional automatic coffee machines

My company was the first in the history of Canada to introduce contactless payments on professional WMF coffee machines. The WMF company is the world leader in the production of automatic coffee machines with the largest share of the world market, however, the peculiarities of Canada’s payment systems and WMF software did not allow solving the problem of connecting payment terminals to coffee machines without updating the software. I created a working group that unites NAYAX and other service companies to implement a project for connecting payment terminals to WMF coffee machines. Several months of hard work and testing allowed us to solve the problem and bring the Canadian market closer to the large-scale introduction of self-service coffee corners.

Many technologies developed within the BMS Cloud platform have shown their effectiveness and profitability for business long before the coronavirus pandemic. But in the current times, they have demonstrated even greater market demand, and now I am putting great emphasis on developing technologies for public catering and retail that will further reduce the likelihood of the spread of COVID-19.

Despite self-isolation and social distancing, people, as in the past, want and will go to shops and cafes, buy their favorite drinks and eat deliciously. “Digitalization of business” and the introduction of safe technologies, in my opinion, is one of the few ways to comply with the new pandemic “rules of the game”.

And you don’t need to go far. Why do customers more often choose “convenience stores”?

These days people are buying at discounters and convenience stores rather than in large format hypermarkets. Nielsen analysts have also mentioned these noticeable changes in the trading formats. 

There is an obvious fact that the market is being changed and the largest Russian retailers are not an exception. The retailers are rapidly reformatting retail shops.

X5 Group announces that the hypermarket market in Russia will be reduced by 0.3 trillion rubles, but the convenience store segment will be grown by 1.5 trillion rubles. Regarding this trend, the retailer has abandoned the Karusel hypermarkets and opened the Pyaterochka convenience store. The Lenta retailer and the Utkonos online retailer have also announced their intention to develop the convenience store segment. 

What’s going on? I propose to consistently find out the reasons for the changes. 

The convenience store is a format that has gotten an increased interest from consumers around the world for a few years. The Russian market is not an exception and the local shops where people can find almost anything they need has become more popular especially during a period of pandemics and restrictions. The main advantage of the convenience store is proximity. Buyers do not want to waste time and money to reach distant hypermarkets and prefer to visit the shops 10-15 minutes away from home. Retailers understand these needs and make changes according to a new trend. 

New compact formats implementation

Large retailers have begun to actively implement the new formats. What are the reasons for these business decisions? I definitely can announce a complex of factors. 

1. Decreasing hypermarket traffic;

2. Pandemic restrictions and the need to shop in the stores with a few visitors.

Bright trends of consumer behavior have been formed and taken by large retail chains. 

1. Rare store visiting and buying for future use

As I have already mentioned above, the pandemic has affected store visiting. 

People do not want to visit large stores where hundreds of customers are in line and choose local stores next to their homes. These days they do not go to the stores often, but make purchases for future use. Retailers are talking about a decrease in-store visits and an increase of the average check by 20%. During the pandemic, groceries, meat delicacies, household chemicals, and cosmetics sales have been increased significantly.

2. Discounts hunt

Consumers tend to save money and look for promotional products. Every second shop visitor check contains discount goods. As a result, we get an increase in private-label goods and promotional goods sales.

3. Cooking at home 

Remote work, pandemic restrictions, and income decrease affect the habits of Russian consumers. People buy stock products more often as well as they cook at home.

 In addition to cooking, people also make cosmetic procedures, do sports at home. As a result of these changes, there is a trend of increased demand for private labels in such categories as grocery, confectionery, dairy products, and household chemicals. 

The retail sphere is being changed as well as the customers

The “poor health” of hypermarkets and changing consumer habits make Russian retail reformat. Retailers are reducing their shop space and opening city-format stores — with an area of ​​less than 5 thousand square meters. 

Convenience stores, discounters, retail outlets are perhaps the fastest-growing format in 2021. The Magnit retail chain plans to open 1–1.5 thousand “convenience stores” annually until 2025. «Lenta» retail chain has launched the first «Mini Lenta» store and as the future business strategy wants to launch small area shops equipped with built-in trade equipment, coffee machines, a grill area, and vending machines.

I am sure that the current trend will be popular. And I mean not only the local retail stores, which are usually located on the first floors of residential buildings but also gas station shops. 

The technological base they are built on gradually turns them into modern complexes of various services and makes them attractive for thousands of consumers. 

You can always rely on the experts when there is a need to launch a successful roadside shop and develop small-format stores.

For many years the Rainblade company has been implementing technological solutions that are efficient to reach high business performance especially in shops with limited space and traffic, and we also know how to make this business meet the latest modern trends.

Auto purchases, CRM-system for competitive tenders and directories in the clouds

To simplify the work of purchasing department? To avoid hundreds of competitive tenders for each item? To gather together the information on the balance and delivery schedules? Easy.
“ADR” system developed by RusHOLTS has been solving these problems since 2011, making the work of gas station staff and managing companies much easier.
Auto purchases for retail
Solutions that automate procurement processes are actively developing in certain retail segments. A striking example – restaurants and shops at gas stations chains.
Product range in gas stations’s cafes and shops includes about 3 000 commodity items. At the same time, according to the established standards, the station may make an order starting from 500 rubles which, taking in the account the Russian distances, is simply ruinous for the suppliers that have no consolidation tools for trade flows, – Says Alexander Kuzmin, CEO of RusHOLTS – a company which is engaged in supplying on-fuel products for gas stations.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the large chains of filling stations are being built via buying incorporating the smaller ones, each of which uses their own accounting systems: Excel spreadsheets, “1C” and others. This makes it impossible to use standard solutions, so RusHOLTS developed and successfully introduced a number of services: “ADR”, coffee machines remote monitoring and other technological equipment.
As a result an online system for automated collection of information on all products at gas stations was created, on which are based the reports on the need for a particular product at a particular station on a daily basis. Gas station employees are using these documents to place orders with suppliers or service organizations that serve gas stations.
The system eliminated the need for holding hundreds of competitive tenders for each of the goods, increased the transparency of the process and the level of control. To the customer it is simply enough to select one or more operators, which will continue to provide comprehensive management services for the supply of goods and services within the contractual terms.

Full article >> http://www.b2b-center.ru/zakupki/analytics/resheniya-v-sfere-zakupok/

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